…and it all comes back to enforcement. If police don’t bother to arrest, DA’s don’t bother to prosecute, and judges hand out get-out-of-jail-free sentences (see teenager in Texas who got off because he was too rich) no amount of laws will change anything.

Also, I like the idea of the insurance companies being the heavies in some of these accidents. Rather than there being a law that you need to wear a seatbelt, allow the insurance company to refuse to pay if you are not wearing one. Hit a fixed object; let the insurance company pay for the damaged property but not for your vehicle. I think that might change some behaviors.

The driver, who was not immediately identified, stood outside the store after the accident. She didn’t suffer any visible injuries and she wasn’t taken into custody. Later, her son came to the scene with a service dog and drove her home, he said.

Romane said she was driving through the parking lot and then, “for some unknown reason still under investigation,” her pickup went through the front doors, then veered to the right inside before winding up in the rear of the store.

…

Romane said he didn’t know if charges will be filed against the driver.

There are so many things to like about this story. One, the son arriving with a service dog. Why? Was he blind? And he then drove her home?
So many wonderful quotes:
“Romane said it’s not uncommon for people to crash into the sides of buildings or drive through the fronts of stores in Las Vegas, but what is uncommon is that the vehicle made it all the way to the back of the store.”
…
“‘I’m still waiting until they find the keys to her Infiniti,’ he said outside of the hospital. ‘They’re somewhere in the store. They flew right out of her hand as she was buying groceries.'”
…
“‘They’d better hire a cleanup crew, ‘cause I’m not doing it,’ said one worker.”

I’m a little disappointed in the local news media websites this weekend. On air they have mentioned at least four cars-into-buildings incidents, but they are not listed on their sites.
There was a pickup truck into a home’s foundation, a minor hit to another home’s foundation, a car into a funeral home and a car upside-down in a driveway that I thought deserved special style points.

^The impact sent the car flying and slammed into the victim’s very own first floor apartment

“The guy just was speeding and just smacked him and just smacked him right into his house. Right into his bedroom,” Parker-Dulin said.

Police not only believe that high speed played a role, but also believe the other driver was under the influence.

“Where you going to be speeding like that? Nowhere. To probably catch the next red light that was coming up. There was no need to be speeding like that,” Parker-Dulin said. “I loved him so much. I just miss my dad.”

^maybe the driver is a cyclist who is use to going up the ramp to the “bike” side of the bridge, and they just forgot that they were in van and not on their bike. Or maybe the driver had a bike in the van and got confused on which side they should be using.